12 months in 12 songs

January to December, in tunes

Slash. A desert. An unplugged Les Paul. It can only be the November Rain video.

It's nearly October. Or 'Rocktober', as we never say here.

Even so, MusicRadar set itself a challenge. Could we soundtrack every month of the year with great tunes?

Well, you can certainly find 12 January-December tunes. Whether they are 'great', we'll leave you to decide. Roll on a calendar of music...

Pilot – January

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQZ5AHUk2U

They spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts in erm, February 1975, but not many people remember Pilot. That said, there is a double-neck Gibson in the video, and the band were on the soundtrack of Adam Sandler's excellent golf comedy Happy Gilmore in 1996.

Foo Fighters – February Stars

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZG7PqE7Sds

Here's an 'acoustic' version of the track from Foo Fighters' '97 album The Colour And The Shape. That's better.

Epica – The Imperial March

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpY2c6mnOwQ

Darth Vader's theme music reinvented through Dutch symphonic metal. Feel the power of the dark side of the force right here. (Okay, we struggled with March.)

{PAGEBREAK}

The Jesus And Mary Chain – April Skies

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtU391lQjE&feature=related

What a weird band JAMC were: shambling guitar-fuzz melded with retro soul-pop melodies shouldn't work. Somehow, however, this does.

Blue Öyster Cult - Then Came The Last Days Of May

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DTY8CITQn4&feature=related

Blue Öyster Cult deserve kudos for inventing the superfluous umlaut in metal band names. And for having a guitarist (singer here, too) called Buck Dharma - which if you mispronounce as Duck Bharma makes you at least think he's nice to animals. Weird band. Another track on their debut album was called She's As Beautiful As A Foot. But of course!

B-52s - Junebug

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GhQSwMdXJc

More cowbell! Oh no, actually don't bother. And the maracas aren't great either. Are there better songs with June in the title? Please?

Ocean Colour Scene – July

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIMEXQEzOE

July was used as the theme tune to Lock, Stock… No, not Guy Richie's blockbuster Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels – but the spin-off TV series. Regardless, the oft-mocked 'dad rockers' are in thanks to the lyric "and June becomes Juuuuuuuulllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy."

{PAGEBREAK}

Counting Crows – August and Everything After

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sOd0Bzjqho

The album of the same name was released in 1993, but this song wasn't actually heard until more than a decade later when the band played it live.

Earth Wind And Fire – September

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iknEJf9cPeY

None more '70s. It's a great song though, from an undervalued funk band. A few years later, half of EWF were backing Phil Collins. Just how mad is pop music?

Amy Winehouse – October Song

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G2t6Uf3boI

Before the crack/divorce/media car-crash took over, there was this. It's from Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank, when you could see what the fuss was about.

{PAGEBREAK}

Guns N' Roses – November Rain

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VX6gMudhCU

Quite possibly the most overblown single-release ever: a kind of Stairway To Nowhere. Looking back, was this the beginning of the end of GN'R?

Kate Bush – December Will Be Magic Again

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZiadb3bpOI&feature=related

Shortly before Kate Bush retired from any public performance, she actually had her own Christmas Special TV programme on the BBC. Is she loveably eccentric or just plain bonkers? Who still knows?